Board Members

As co-founder and member of the board of directors for Ripcord, Alex Fielding is responsible for the leadership, vision and execution of the company. Fielding started his career as an engineer at Cisco Systems and Apple, where he worked on multiple generations of MacOS, PowerBook, Network Server and was part of the first iMac team. Shortly after departing Apple, he worked at Exodus Communications with Ellen Hancock, Exodus’S CEO who was Apple’s former CTO.

He co-founded Wheels of Zeus with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak in 2001, which was sold to Zontrak in 2006. Alex was Chief Technology Officer, Federal Government at Power Assure and then Vice President at Vigilent before starting Ripcord. Alex sits on the Board of Directors of The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), is a Board Member of the Code Warriors Foundation and is a founding member of Singularity University.

Jonah is a Design Strategy Director at D-Ford in Palo Alto, CA. D-Ford is the human-centered design organization within the Ford Motor Company and is chartered with helping bring the tools and methods of design into the 118-year-old legacy company. His work is primarily focused on understanding the intersection of the changing context of work and transportation.

Prior to Ford, Jonah spent nearly two decades at IDEO holding a number of roles from engineering to organizational design. He has worked to bring design thinking into many different contexts from the Intelligence Community to start-ups.

Outside of work, Jonah is a father of three children and two Samoyeds. You will often find him perfecting his sourdough or otherwise tinkering around in the kitchen.

Dr. Mark David Milliron is Chief Learning Officer at Civitas Learning. Prior to Civitas, he was the founding chancellor of Western Governors University, Texas. He has also served as Deputy Director for Postsecondary Improvement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading efforts to increase student success in the US postsecondary education sector. In previous roles, he founded the private consulting group, Catalyze Learning International (CLI); served as an Endowed Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Director of the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin; served as Vice President for Education and Medical Practice with SAS, the world’s largest private software company; and was President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

In 1999, The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education named Mark a Distinguished Graduate for his service to the education field. In 2005, he received the annual PBS/ETS O’Banion Prize for transformational work in support of teaching and learning. In 2007, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) presented him with its National Leadership Award for his work in advancing education opportunity. And in 2011, the National University Technology Network (NUTN) named Mark the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for his leadership in advancing innovative technology use in education. He is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant well known for exploring leadership development, future trends, learning strategies, and the human side of technology change. He has worked with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world.

Mark also serves on numerous corporate, nonprofit, and education boards and advisory groups, including WGU; the Global Online Academy, a not-for-profit educational partnership serving independent schools nationally and internationally; and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), the parent organization of the Big Ideas Fest.

Steve is a technology entrepreneur with a passion for tackling complex social problems. As a corporate leader and philanthropist, he has impacted the lives of millions and helped generate significant global business success through technology, gaming and educational initiatives.  He is founder and CEO of Junyo, a learning-analytics company in Silicon Valley, with the mission to improve the learning experience of every child. Steve sits on the board of the Full Circle Fund, a non-profit incubator helping to accelerate change in education, environment, and economic opportunity. He also is also a board member of Indiegogo, a crowd-funding platform supporting entrepreneurs and causes.

He was co-founder, vice president and first employee of Zynga, and core member of Kontiki.  Early in his career, he helped build some of the world’s first mobile computers at GO and General Magic.

He graduated University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Ramona is passionate about empowering others to live the life of their dreams. As a Financial Advisor, she provides comprehensive financial planning, investment solutions, and protection services to individuals and institutions. Ramona’s prior experiences led her to the financial services industry. She founded and operated an award-winning chocolate business for eight years. Before launching her business in 2011, Ramona had an entrepreneurial career for 18 years in the nonprofit sector, primarily in education philanthropy, where she was typically hired to create and implement new programs, departments, or organizations that addressed a problem, disparity, or need. Ramona has extensive experience in nonprofit management, philanthropy (traditional grant making and venture investing), and education, specifically in developing and executing initiatives from the ground up. At her core, Ramona is a learner and problem solver. She currently serves as a Senior Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Consultant to the Center for Responsive Schools. Ramona started her career as a systems consultant and has held management and consultant positions in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Brown University and a doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she received the Phi Delta Kappa Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Graduate School of Education. Her training focused on higher education administration, quantitative research methods, and program evaluation.

Lisa Petrides, Ph.D. is CEO and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), an education nonprofit dedicated to making learning and knowledge-sharing participatory, equitable, and open. A former professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership at Columbia University, Teachers College, she has advised and led development efforts that have enabled schools, colleges, universities, ministries of education, and the organizations that support them to expand their capacity to use data and information, and create inclusive knowledge-driven environments focused on teaching and learning. Petrides received her B.S. from University of California Berkeley, MBA from Sonoma State University, and Ph.D. in Education Policy from Stanford University.

Marshall (Mike) Smith Senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Years served: 2010-2016 | More About: Linkedin

Greg Anderson Dean and Associate Professor, Morgridge College of Education
Years served: 2010-2013 | More About: Temple University

Mary Furlong President, Mary Furlong and Associates
Years served: 2008-2012 | More About: Linkedin

Lance Izumi Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy
Years served: 2006-2015 | More About: Linkedin

Xiaonan (Shawn) Cao Senior Education Specialist, Education Global Practice, World Bank
Years served: 2005-2010 | More About: World Bank Blogs

Linda Powell, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Research Center for Leadership in Action,
Wagner School of Public Service, New York University
Years served: 2002-2006 (Founding Board Member) | More About: Richmond Times-Dispatch

Nicole Melander, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Campus Labs
Years served: 2018-2023 | More info: LinkedIn

Martha Kanter, Executive Director at College Promise Campaign
Years served: 2018-2023 | More info: LinkedIn

Howard Block, Ph.D. Senior Analyst, Bank of America Securities
Years served: 2002-2006 (Founding Board Member)

Debra Friedman, Ph.D. Associate Provost for Academic Planning, University of Washington
Years served: 2002-2004 (Founding Board Member) 

George Por, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Learning & Teaching (CALT)
Years served: 2002-2004 (Founding Board Member)

Steven Elkes, Senior Executive
Years served: 2016-2025 | More about: LinkedIn

Jason Goecke, Startup Founder
Years served: 2016-2026 | More about: LinkedIn

Andreea Serban, Coast Community College District, Vice Chancellor of Educational Services & Technology
Years served: 2002-2025 | More about: Bio